SEC launches ‘Make IPOs Great Again’ initiative with crypto companies already lining up

The SEC just gave its IPO revival campaign a name that practically begs for a red hat: “Make IPOs Great Again.” Chairman Paul S. Atkins is leading the charge to reverse a long, slow exodus of companies from US public markets.

Two rule proposals released on May 19 aim to make the process of going public less painful, particularly for smaller and emerging companies.

What the SEC is actually proposing

The first proposal focuses on reforming registered offerings, specifically by expanding access to shelf registrations like Form S-3. Shelf registrations let companies pre-register securities and sell them later when market conditions look favorable, instead of going through the full regulatory gauntlet every single time they want to raise capital.

The second proposal tackles filer status simplification. The SEC wants to raise the large accelerated filer threshold from $700 million to $2 billion.

The numbers tell a clear story about why the SEC feels compelled to act. The number of US Exchange Act reporting companies dropped from 6,996 in 2004 to 5,976 in 2024. That’s a roughly 15% decline over two decades, during a period when the economy grew substantially and private markets ballooned.

Crypto companies are already making moves

Blockchain.com and FalconX both filed confidential S-1 registration statements in May 2026, signaling their intent to go public. Blockchain.com operates one of the most widely used crypto wallets globally, and FalconX is a major institutional digital asset brokerage.

That said, filing an S-1 confidentially is step one of a multi-step process. Plenty of companies have filed S-1s that never resulted in actual IPOs.

What this means for crypto investors

Right now, if you want exposure to crypto infrastructure companies, your options are limited. You can buy Coinbase stock, invest in various mining companies, or pick up shares of MicroStrategy. A wave of new crypto IPOs would dramatically expand that menu.

More public crypto companies also means more transparency. Public companies file quarterly reports, disclose executive compensation, and face audit requirements. For an industry that has historically struggled with trust — specifically because of opaque private companies like FTX — moving more firms onto public exchanges could be genuinely healthy for market integrity.

The public comment period for these proposals runs until July 27, 2026, and the SEC has scheduled an event titled “Rethinking the Rulebook” for July 13, 2026.

For crypto specifically, there’s an additional variable: whether the broader regulatory framework for digital assets solidifies enough to give potential IPO candidates the legal clarity they need. A company can’t easily go public if it’s still unclear whether half its products might be deemed unregistered securities.

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